Living under a shadow

by Swapna Mukhopadhyay

Both biological and social reasons make women more vulnerable to HIV infection and these factors need to be taken into account when planning strategies against HIV/SIDS. Many of the HIV positive women in India are single-partner married women, who have little control over their bodies, placing them at risk of contacting the infection. The research found strong gender differences in the impact of the disease. It also found that, perhaps for different sets of reasons, simple awareness of about HIV/AIDS does not necessarily translate into changed behaviour for either sex. The basic research for this book was carried out in 1999-2000 in Delhi. Focusing on the household and the community, the study included interviews with HIV positive persons and their family members as well as focus group discussions with men, women, adolescent boys and girls in a slum cluster in Central Delhi.